The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo First Chapter - Demo Read
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Hi, my name is Nicole and this is my demo. I'll be reading the first chapter of one of my favorite books called The Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by taylor Jenkins. Reid chapter one, can you come into my office? I look around at the desk beside me and then back at Frankie, trying to confirm to whom exactly she's talking. I point to myself, do you mean me, Frankie has very little patience? Yes. Monique you. That's why I said Monique, can you come into my office? Sorry, I just heard the last part Frankie turns. I grab my notepad and follow her. There's something very striking about Frankie. I'm not sure that you'd say she was conventionally attractive. Her features are severe, her eyes very wide apart, but she is nevertheless someone you can't help but look at and admire with her thin six ft tall frame, her short cropped afro and her affinity for bright colors and big jewelry. When Frankie walks into a room, everyone takes notice she was part of the reason I took this job. I have looked up to her since I was in journalism school, reading her pieces in the very pages of the magazine she now runs and I now work for and if I'm being honest, there's something very inspiring about having a black woman running things as a biracial woman myself. Light brown skin and dark brown eyes courtesy of my black father an abundance of face freckles, courtesy of my white mother Frankie makes me feel more sure that I can one day run things too. Take a seat Frankie says as she sits down and gestures toward an orange share on the opposite side of her lucite desk. I calmly sit and cross my legs. I let Frankie talk first. So puzzling turn of events, she says, looking at her computer. Evelyn Hugo's people are enquiring about a feature, an exclusive interview. My gut instinct is to say holy sh it. But also why are you telling me this about? What in particular? I asked. My guess is it's related to the gun auction. She's doing Frankie says my understanding is that it's very important to her to raise as much money for the american breast cancer foundation as possible. But they won't confirm that Frankie shakes her head. All they will confirm is that Evelyn has something to say. Evelyn Hugo is one of the biggest movie stars of all time. She doesn't even have to have something to say for people to listen. This could be a big cover for us, right? I mean she's a living legend. Wasn't she married eight times or something? Seven Frankie says. And yes, this has huge potential, which is why I hope you'll bear with me through the next part of this. What do you mean Frankie takes a big breath and gets a look on her face that makes me think I'm about to get fired. But then she says, Evelyn specifically requested you me. This is the second time in the span of five minutes that I have been shocked that someone was interested in speaking with me. I need to work on my confidence. Suffice it to say it's taken a beating recently. Although I pretend it was ever really soaring to be honest. That was my reaction to Frankie says now I'll be honest, I'm a little offended, although obviously I can see where she's coming from. I've been at Devon for less than a year mostly doing puff pieces. Before that, I was blogging for the discourse, a current events and culture side that calls itself a news magazine but is effectively a blog would punchy headlines. I wrote mainly for the modern life section covering trending topics and opinion pieces. After years of freelancing, the discourse gig was a lifesaver, but when vivant offered me a job, I couldn't help myself, I jumped at the chance to join an institution to work among legends. On my first day of work. I walked past walls decorated with iconic culture shifting covers, the one of women's activist Debbie palmer naked and carefully post, standing on top of a skyscraper overlooking Manhattan in 1984 to one of artists robert turner in the act of painting a canvas what a text declared that he had AIDS back in 1991 it felt surreal to be part of the vivant world. I have always wanted to see my name on its glossy pages. But unfortunately for the past 12 issues, I've done nothing but ask old guard questions of people with old money while my colleagues back at the discourse are attempting to change the world while going viral. So simply put, I'm not exactly impressed with myself. Look, it's not that we don't love you, we do, Frankie says we think you're destined for big things at vivant, but I was hoping to put one of our more experienced top hitters in this and so I want to be a front with you. When I say that we did not submit you as an idea to Evelyn's team, we sent five big names and they came back with this Frankie turns her computer screen toward me and shows me an email from someone named thomas Welch, who I can only assume is Evelyn Hugo's publicist from thomas. Welch to troop Frankie. Cc Sammy, Jason powers, Ryan. It's Monique Grant or Evelyn's out. I look back up at Frankie, stunned and to be honest, a little bit starstruck that Evelyn Hugo wants anything to do with me. Do you know Evelyn Hugo? Is that what's going on here, Frankie asks me as she turns the computer back toward her side of the desk. No, I say surprised even to be asked the question. I've seen a few of her movies, but she's a little before my time. You have no personal connection to her. I shake my head, definitely not, aren't you from Los Angeles? Yeah, but the only way I've had any connection to Evelyn Hugo, I suppose is if my dad worked on one of her films back in the day, he was still a photographer for movie sets. I can ask my mom. Great thank you, Frankie looks at me expectantly. Did you want me to ask now? Could you? I pulled my phone out of my pocket and text my mother. Did dad ever work on any Evelyn Hugo movies? I see three dots start to appear and I look up only to find that Frankie is trying to get a glimpse of my phone. She seems to recognize the invasion and leans back. My phone dings. My mother text. Maybe there were so many. It's hard to keep track. Why? Long story. I reply but I'm trying to figure out if I have any connection to Evelyn Hugo. Think dad would have known her mom answers. No, your father never hang out with anybody famous on set. No matter how hard I tried to get him to make us some celebrity friends. I laugh. It looks like no, no connection to Evelyn Hugo, Frankie nance. Okay well then the other theory is that her people chose someone with less clout so they could try to control you and thus the narrative. I feel my phone vibrate again. That reminds me that I wanted to send you a box of your dad's old work. Some gorgeous stuff. I love having it here. But I think you'd love it more. I'll send it this week. You think they're preying on the weak. I say to Frankie, Frankie smiles softly, sort of So Evelyn's people look up the mass head, find my name as a lower level writer and think they can bully me around. That's the idea. That's what I fear. And you're telling me this because Frankie considers her words because I don't think you can be bullied around. I think they're underestimating you and I want this cover. I wanted to make headlines. What are you saying? I ask, shifting slightly in my chair, Frankie claps her hands in front of her and rest them on the desk, leaning toward me. I'm asking you if you have the guts to go toe to toe with Evelyn Hugo of all the things I thought someone was going to ask me today, this would probably be somewhere around number nine million. Do I have the guts to go toe to toe with Evelyn Hugo. I have no idea. Yes, I say finally, that's all just yes, I want this opportunity. I want to write this story. I'm sick of being the lowest one on the totem pole and I need to win. Goddammit. **** yes, franklin is considering better, but I'm still not convinced. I'm 35 years old. I've been a writer for more than a decade. I want a book deal one day. I want to pick my stories. I want to eventually be the name. People scramble to get when someone like Evelyn Hugo calls and I'm being under used here at Devonte if I'm going to get somewhere I want to go. Something has to let up. Someone has to get out of my way and it needs to happen quickly because this ******* career is all I have anymore. If I want things to change, I have to change how I do things and probably drastically Evelyn wants me, I say you want Evelyn. It doesn't sound like I need to convince you Frankie. It sounds like you need to convince me, Frankie is dead quiet, staring right at me over her steepled fingers. I was aiming for formidable. I might have overshot. I feel the same way I did when I tried weight training and started with a £40 weights too much too soon. Makes it obvious you don't know what you're doing. It takes everything. I have not to take it back, not to apologize profusely. My mother raised me to be polite, to be demure. I have long operated under the idea that civility is subservience, but it hasn't gotten me very far. That type of kindness. The world respects people who think they should be running it. I've never understood that, but I'm done fighting it. I'm here to be Frankie one day. Maybe bigger than Frankie to do. Big important work that I am proud of to leave a mark and I'm nowhere near doing that. Yet the silence is so long that I think I might crack the tension building with every second that goes by. But Frankie Cracks 1st. Okay? She says, and puts out her hand that she stands up. Shock and searing pride run through me as I extend my own. I make sure my handshake is strong, Frankie's is advice. Ace this Monique for us and for yourself. Please. I will we break away from each other. As I walked toward her door, she might have read your physician assisted suicide piece for the discourse, Frankie says just before I leave the room. What? It was stunning. Maybe that's why she wants you. It's how we found you. It's a great story. Not just because of the hits of God, but because of you. Because it's beautiful work. It was one of the first truly meaningful stories I wrote of my own volition. I pitched it after I was assigned a piece on the rise in popularity of Microgreens, especially under Brooklyn restaurant scene. I had gone to the park slope market to interview a local farmer, but when I confessed that I didn't get the appeal of mustard greens, he told me that I sounded like his sister. She had been highly carnivorous until the past year when she switched to a vegan all organic diet as she battled brain cancer. As we spoke more, he told me about a physician assisted suicide support group. He and his sister had joined for those at the end of their lives and their loved ones. So many in the group were fighting for the right to die with dignity, healthy eating wasn't going to save his sister's life and neither of them wanted her to suffer any longer than she had to. I knew then that I wanted very deeply to give a voice to the people of that support group. I went back to the discourse office and pitched the story. I thought I'd be turned down given my recent slate of articles about hipster trends and celebrity think pieces. But to my surprise, I was greeted with a green light. I worked tirelessly on it, attending meetings in church basements, interviewing the members, writing and rewriting until I felt confident that the piece represented the full complexity, both to mercy and the moral code of helping to end the lives of suffering people. It is the story that I'm proudest of. I have more than once gone home from a day's work here and read that piece again, reminding myself of what I'm capable of reminding myself of the satisfaction I take in sharing truth. No matter how difficult it may be to swallow. Thank you. I tell Frankie now, I'm just saying that you're talented. It might be that it's probably not though. No, she says it's probably not. But write the story. Well, whatever it is and the next time it will be